Supporting clamp for a rope side frame conveyor



June 14, 1960 R. F. LO- PRESTI 2,940,147

SUPPORTING CLAMP FOR A ROPE SIDE FRAME CONVEYOR Filed June 23, 1958 1!IIIIIIIII INV ENT OR.

Roy F LoPresii A T TORNE Y United States Patent SUPPORTING CLAMP FOR AROPE SIDE FRAME CONVEYOR Roy F. Lo Presti, Chicago, Ill., assignor toGoodman llgafiuhlrctunn' g Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation 015Filed June 23, 1958, Ser. No. 743,600

3 Claims. (Cl. 24-126) This invention relates to rope frame conveyors ofthe type generally disclosed in Gleeson Patent No. 2,907,448 (one ropeframe); Craggs and McCann Patent No. 2,773,257 (two rope frames); and LoPresti Patent No. 2,833,395 (more than two rope frames); andparticularly to an improved clamp for locking a troughing idler assembly to a rope frame, and for locking a rope frame to a supporting stand.

Conventional rope clamps distort, flatten and do varying amounts ofdamage to the rope and in spite of this many of them do not hold well.

Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to providea rope frame conveyor having a rope clamp which is easily and quicklyattached or released yet which holds tight without damagin the rope. Inone preferred embodiment, this'is carried out by a tapered screw,crossing and engaging the rope obliquely and which can be tightened byrotating to cam it into intimate, meshing, interengagement between thescrew threads and the rope strands. One feature of the inventionprovides for the root only of the screw thread to bear against the clampto avoid damage to the clamp by the tips of the threads. Anotherfeature, particularly useful where a stranded rope is used, is a coarsethread approximating the pitch of the rope so that individual ropestrands will be readily gripped between adjacent screw threads withoutdamaging the rope. In some'cases a non-stranded rope may be employed.

Other objects and advantages will be developed in the followingdescription taken in connection with the drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary cross sectional view of the load-carryingreach of a rope sideframe conveyor employing a pair of troughing idlerassembly clamps illustrating one preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged side view of Figure 1 taken in the direction ofthe arrows 2-2;

Figure 3 is an enlarged cross sectional view of Figure 2 taken alongline 33;

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3, showing an alternate form oflocking screw;

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic view of Figure 3 taken along the line 5-5illustratin the intermeshing effect between the screw threads and therope strands; and

Figure 6 is an alternate application, showing the im- I proved ropeclamp applied to the top of a rope supporting stand.

Like parts are referred to by like reference characters throughout thefigures of the drawing.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, a pair of flexiblesideframes, comprisin stranded wire ropes 11, 11, are trained along acourse in the manner described for example in Patent No. 2,773,257. Aflexible troughing idler assembly 12 carries the upper or load-carryingreach 14 of a conveyor belt. The return reach and certain other parts ofa complete conveyor are not shown here as they are unnecessary in thedescription of the 1 present invention.

The ropes 11, 11 may be held at a desired height by stands placed atintervals 'therealong. One of these stands. is shown fragmentarily inFigure 6 and consists of a pair (only one shown) of upstanding legs 14on feet 16, held apart by a spreader bar 17. A rope clamp according tothe present invention and generally designated 18 is mounted atop eachleg 14 and will be described in more detail presently.

Now, returning to the troughing idler assembly 12, it

is :here shown as of the fully flexible type and comprises a center,load-carrying, training roller 19, flanked by a' pair of wing rollers21, 21, all being rotatable on dead As best shown in of links 27, 27 toa clamp generally designated 28. The links are held by pins 29, 31.Washers 32, 32 serve as spacers or fillers on the top and bottomsurfaces of the' clamp body 33.

Now, referring specifically to the improved clamp 28, shown in Figure 3,it comprises a U-shaped body or plate, already designated 33 and made upof a limb 34 connected to pin 31, a lower limb 36, both limbs beingjoined by a rope-embracing bight 37. Limb 34 is prosided with anaperture, generally circular in this case; A mating aperture 38 isprovided" and designated 38a. in the'other limb. A lock screw 39 isformed witha coarse thread 41. It will be observed that this is asubstantially cylindrical thread, that is the outer tip .ofthe threadmay be described as lying substantially in a cylindrical surface so thatthe radius of the thread periphery,

as measured from the central axis of the screw body, is substantiallyuniform; this enables the screw to fit snugly, with reasonable operatingtolerances, within the apertures 38, 38a. In contrast to the threadperiphery, the root 42 is tapered, tapering downward in diameter fromthe eye portion 43 at the -top end of the screw; this taper provides thedesired squeezing eflfect on the rope when tightened.

Figure 3 shows how the coarse portions of the thread 41 straddle one ofthe rope strands 44 to hold them positively intermeshed. This is furtherillustrated, schematically, in Figure 5. The eye portion 43 provides aconvenient coupling for any one of a variety of available tools such asa screw driver, plier handle or spike and enables an extremely highforce to be applied, causing the tapered root 42 to cam the ropeforcibly outward into positive locking engagement between the screw andthe bight.

It will be apparent that since the screw thread pitch P is coarse,roughly approximating at least the pitch PP of the rope, the screwthreads and rope strands will effectively intermesh without damage toeither.

Figure 4 illustrates a modified form of clamp which may be identical tothe one shown in Figure 3 except that a different lock screw 46 may beemployed. In this case the screw is formed with a full taper, that isboth the periphery of the thread 47 and the root 48 are tapered. Notethat the pitch P of the screw thread in Figure 4 is preferably madegreater than the thickness T of the clamp body; thus, the root of thescrew will bear directly on the walls of the apertures 38 and 380 withinthe limbs, keeping the thread tip entirely clear of bearing engagementwith the clamp, thereby preventing damage to the thread by engagementwith the limbs, and vice versa. 'Note that in Figure 4, the thread tipbears only against the rope itself. This construction enables the use ofa relatively fragile, thin thread, easily able to slip between adjacentrope strands 44, 44. As seen in Patented June 14, ISSQ,

3 7 Figure 5 it will be observed that the angle of the screw thread canbe made to approximately correspond with the 7 angle of the rope strandsat the point of contact.

The clamp 13 (Fig. 6)1may be substantially the same as clamp 28,comprising namely a long limb 49 welded atop the foot 14, a short limb51 and a connectingbight 52'. In the present case a lock screw 46 isshown extenda ing through apertures in the limbs and holding the rope'bightportion connecting the limb portions together,

means for. connecting one oithe' limb portions to such con- 1 Yeyorcomponent, and an elongatediexternally threadedscrew-likememberdisposedjwithin the apertures adapted to fwedge' such strandagainst the highs portion, said screwlike member having a tapered rootportion disposed intermediate adjacent threads for engaging such strandto so wedge same against the bight portion ofthe body member, saidadjacent threads having a pitch that is wider than'the'thickness,iofflthe limb portions of the body member ;to enable theqroot portionofthe screw-like 30 member to directly g ge the limb portions of the bodymember; a 7 n 2. Theiclampmg device as set f orth in claim 1 wherein"'the thread of the screwlike member has a tapered outer periphery.

'3. In a flexible strand sideframeconveyor apparatus having at least oneflexible strand means trainedalong a given course, said strand meanscomprising a plurality of twisted strands having a ,pitch correspondingto the circumference divided by the number of external strands, theimprovement comprising, in combination with the 5 strand means, aclamping device for securing a conveyor component to the strand means,said clamping device including a U-shaped body member defined by a pairof limb portions each having an aperture therethrough and a bightportion connecting the limb portions together,

10 means for connecting one of the limb portions to such conveyorcomponent, and an elongated externally threaded screwlike memberextending through the apertures and disposed therein in direct'contactwith the limb portions and the strand means to wedge the strand meansforceably into the biglit portion of the body member, said screwlikemember having a substantially cylindrical outer thread periphery and atapered root portion disposed intermediate adjacent threads with theouter periphery ofthe thread directly engaging the limb portions of thebody member and the root portion directly engaging the external strandsof the strand means with an individual externalstrand'thereof beinggripped between adjacent 1': threads of the screwlike member, the threadof said screwlike member having a pitchusubstantially equal to the pitchof the twisted strands of the strand means, to enable the externalstrands of the strandmeans' and the adjacent threadsof the screwlikemember to intermesh 2; without appreciable damage to either the threadof the screwlike member or the strands of the s'trandmeans;

References Cited in thefile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 368,321Bow'e Aug. 16,1887 1,694,683 Cole 'Dec. 11, I928 2-,651 -,02 6 RothSept. 1 1953 2.713.257 cr t D 2,903,770 Hagenbook et a1. Sept. 15, 1959

